Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1887-09-29

stood that a great deal OF ammuni.
ton would yet be required.
An hour or so later Randall stood
at his post upon the stern ofthe barge
watching a score of "roustabouts,
who were going and coming, busily
employed in removing the percussion
shells called for by the colonel.
Every man of them was deeply inn
pressed with the solemnity ofthe work
he was doing, and was yisibly afraid
o. each burden he brought upfrom the
hold of the barge. All the customary
shouting and singing had subsidized into
a befttinggravity. There we're no ioung
ers on the levee, for the sentries post
ed at suitable distances prevented the
approach OF unauthorized persons.
No craft of any sort was moored near
the barge which contained SO many
tons of compressed powder and peril.
The ridge of the levee was many feet
above the river level, and was already
lined with the terrible cylinders, whose
yet undimmed copper glistened in the
sunshine.
Nearly DONE" said Randall, aloud,
"and I'm glad of it. Can't say I've
any nerves to speak of, but I'd rather
movea hundred loads OF mere powder
or ordinary shell. / don't like those
things"
He glanced down al the muddy tor
rent OF the Mississippi, rushing by in
mill race haste, and added:
'Td be safer in the middle oftheriv
er than | am here"
He was undoubtly a man of our
age and his nerves were such as fitted
him for his present duty, but he was
unable to put away from him a strong
sense of the lonely peril of his post.
Neither could he AVOID a kind OF vague
calculation of the enormous destruct-
i've forces chained IN the cargo con-
cealed by the deck he stood upon.
Tramp, tramp, tramp, with som
Der steadiness, the athletic ''roust-
abouts" went down the companion
way, or came up again, each at re-
turn, bearing one more OF the new ex-
plosives. These did not make an I'M
duly heavy shoulder-load, and there
vas no apparent danger Of an acci-
dent. The veteran artillervman down
in the hold, who superintendent the
picking up and the shouldering, had
been ceaseless in his admonitions, and
every shell had been lifted with a clear
understanding that, as one "roust-
about" expressed it:
"Ef | should sneeze, de she'll would
take dat advantage and go off,"
A transport-steamer, coming down
the river, seemed to sheer away from
the powder landing" as if it were a
place to be Stunned; and Randall
may have been justified in asserting
that:
1.-THE gulls fly high over it, and even
the buzzards wouldn't light on 3 dead
mule if he lay on this levee. It's
dreary work"
So it was. and without extra pay or
honor, except for the ''roustabouts,"
who received double wages. They
were all picked men, and as well fitted
for that service as any white men, but
the colonel OF artiilery had remarked of
them:
'Pd rather lose them than as many
volunteers if anything should hap
pen."
All war material, human or other,
has its assignable value when the ques-
ton of it's expenditure has to be rails
knows what regiment he a best af-
ford TO. report al part of the price
paid tor a victory. The colonel did
not put any estimate upon Randall
DR. the old artilleryman down in the
hold of the barge.
The latter wasnow hopping his fore
head with his bandanna and sayingto
the arriving squad of "roustabouts."
'Only n couple of dozen more, boys,
and then we can get out of this oven.
It's almost hot enough to fire a bar
rel OF g~unpowder, without any fuse or
match either"
Each in turn picked up and should
cred the shell assigned to him and
wheeled toward the companionway.
Randall, on the stern of the barge,
with his pencil and tally-book in his
hand, took due note of every man
and shell, but now and then seemed
disposed to turn and stare for @ sec
ond or so at the yellow flood which
went swiriing and eddying by.
Il could do it." he said, 'if an acct
dent should happen, only there
wouldn't be any warning. ar irst I'd
know i shouldn't know anything"
At that moment a long, lank, loose
ly-built "r~oustabout" came up a
narrow stairway with agleaming tube
OF copper and iron on his left Shout
der.
That's the left.handed man from
Carlo" said Randall. His bones are
put together with strings. Hulloi"
A small sharp nail had worked it's
way out of some ragged pocket, and
had fallen upon the deck, with its heel
in a crack and its point so aimed that
the next forward step of the loose
man drove one of his bare splay feet
heavily against it. There was asharp
yell, a sudden forgettulness of all the
warnings of the old e.r~tilleryman, and
Randall saw the shell pitched reckless
iy, point forward. toward the deck of
the barge.
He did not wait for it to stricke.
Wheeling instantly, he sprang out,
with all his power, in aswlft, headlong
dive, which carried him deep below the
rushing waters of the Mississippi. Be-
hind him, as he struck tie surface,
rang a sharp explosion, and then,
with a short interval whose seconds no
man counted a great column OF flame
and b~lackness shot upward for a hun
dred feet into the air, accompanied
by a vast volumen OF stunning sound
the voices OF many detonations
blended thunderously into one.
Nearly a minute later Randall's
head came out of water, many rods
down the river.
"They re all gonei" he exclaimed.
lie was a good swimmer, and an ed
dy aided him to reach the bank. He
hurried to the spot where a yawning
rift in the side of the levee o mark
ed the landing place OF the powder
barge. There was no other sign that
any such boat had ever been there,
except the cleaning rows of percus-
sion shells yet lying just behind the
ridge. Not one of them had been ex.
ploded by the conclusion.
When the colonel OF artillery came
ealloping up, half an hour later, RAN
dali touched his hat and pointed at
the shells on the levee.
Colonel" he said, "that's ali
the report can make"
II heard the other report" said the
colonel, land so did all Memphis.
How did you manage to escape?''